Mental Health Services

Lord Patel of Bradford Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2015 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Patel of Bradford]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they will improve mental health services, as outlined during Prime Minister’s Questions on 16 September (HC Deb, col 1039).

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Prior of Brampton)]

My Lords, the Government are committed to putting mental health on a par with physical health. We invested more than £120 million to introduce the first waiting times standards for mental health services from April 2015. We have expanded access to psychological therapies. Our crisis care concordat has ensured that we have halved the number of cases of people going through a mental health crisis being held in police cells.

[Lord Patel of Bradford (Lab)]

The Minister gave three significant areas of development. First, on the investment to introduce the first waiting times standards for mental health services from April 2015, will the Minister say what the results of the waiting times standards have been in the first quarter, from April to June? Secondly, he mentioned the expansion of IAPT services, but as I understand it there is no ring-fencing for IAPT services. What evidence and assurance can the Minister provide that these services are being provided across the country, especially for children and young people?

Finally, the Minister mentioned the excellent crisis care concordat, which says that we have halved the number of people in crisis being held in a police station. He will be aware that just this June the CQC report said that people in mental health crises, even those who are suicidal, are not getting the care that they need in emergency situations. What assurances and steps are the Government taking to deliver care to those people in an emergency situation?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

My Lords, very briefly on those three points, we will have the waiting time results for IAPT tomorrow. I will publish them in the Library and write to the noble Lord. On the ring-fencing point, the IAPT part of the £150 million extra spending on CAMHS is not ring-fenced, but the £150 million is in total. We will wait to see the results on how effective the IAPT spending is before we come to a final decision on how much should be spent on IAPT and on other parts of the care budget. On the noble Lord’s third point, the CQC published its report, Right Here, Right Now, some six months ago. It found that things were getting better, but there was still far too much variation. By using that report and encouraging local crisis care concordat teams, we hope to address that variation.